2018 PRODUCT STATEMENT

As a result of our recent work with plant pathologists and plant health testing lab,
we provide the following 2018 hop stock product statement:

Last August 2017, with unexpected levels of humidity in our hopyard combined with our experiment in non-stripping
and mulching of the rows, we experienced what we now have confirmed as hop downy mildew in our hop foliage.
Since this occurrence, we proactively removed all foliar debris by fall burning and
tested the hopyard rhizomes for latent infection.

What we know now is that downy mildew is endemic in hop plants across the North American hop industry (1,2).
As a result, we have randomly tested rhizomes across our hopyard.
The results came back negative (no downy mildew evident in the rhizomes) (2).
This may mean that the fungal spore life cycle was localized and contained to the 2017 hop foliage (3).

We are looking forward to the 2018 season with a return to vigorous management practices of no mulch,
stripping leaves below 4 feet, and pragmatic use of irrigation and fertilizer.
These are management good practices implemented in most hopyards to control endemic hop industry diseases (4,5).

Our guarantee to you is to transparently share the information of our plant stock in a timely way and
to follow industry standard practices to test for and minimize risk of transmission of diseases in propagative material.

Our promise to you is that our hop stock (rhizomes and plants) is of good quality as it leaves our farm as
informed by random batch testing at certified labs.

Northern Girls Hopyard

Thanks to Big Rock Brewery and Common Crown Brewing Co on the 3-Way IPA collaboration! This 100% Alberta hopped beer used Cascade hops harvested on an early September morning by the brewers and Northern Girls Hopyard crew, and immediately driven 4 hours to the waiting kettles in Calgary. We had awesome fun helping with the brewing! This seasonal Limited Edition Wet Hop IPA was released in November 2017.
Read all about it on Big Rock's blog.

Hope you had a chance to taste the July 2017 release of Bat Out of Helles from Edmonton's Alley Kat. This lager was 100% hopped with Sterling from Northern Girld Hopyard. Thanks to the brewers for speaking to us all about the beer at our 2017 Field Day while standing in the Sterling hop rows and serving up gorgeous tasters. A truely sublime hopyard-to-beerglass experience to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of Northern Girls Hopyard!